Iconic character in The Simpsons to be killed off this season

Looks like a another famous character from The Simpsons will be joining Maude Flanders in the animated afterlife. Al Jean (executive producer for the long running show) recently talked to Sun News and confirmed that a famous character on the show will be killed off this season. Jean wouldn't say who will be killed, but he did give a hint:

"I'll give you a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won't say who it is."

Awesome clue Jean, except almost every actor that has played a major character on the show has won an Emmy, and there have been plenty of guest stars that have won the award as well.

The 25th season of The Simpson began on Sunday, and Al Jean also gives some details on other events that will happen in the new season. We already know Guillermo Del Toro is creating the opener for their Treehouse of Horror special (which will air on October 6th) and Al Jean thinks he's done a great job with it:

"I would say - and I've met some people who like scary things - he is the greatest expert on horror movies that I have ever encountered. There are so many references in that opening, it's really brilliant."

Al Jean goes on to say fans should expect to see the Comic Book Guy get married in the upcoming season ("The wedding is performed by Stan Lee. We have Stan Lee playing himself and (sci-fi legend) Harlan Ellison playing himself in that episode. What was funny was that they both wanted to be funnier than the other. It was really exciting for me, as a nerd.") and the season finale will be a Simpsons/Futurama cross-over episode ("I've been here 25 years, and we had a read yesterday where the excitement was as high as I've ever seen. We had John DiMaggio and Billy West and (Canadian voice-over king) Maurice LaMarche from Futurama, as well as our cast, and I thought that's got to be the greatest voiceover talent assembled at one read. It was really, really great to see Bender interacting with Homer.")

I know it's kind of popular to shit on The Simpsons but I still enjoy new episodes, even if they aren't as brilliant as previous ones. Hopefully killing off an iconic character means we'll get a classic Simpsons episode and it won't just be a ratings grab.

Extra Tidbit:

How many of you would lose your shit if they killed off Sideshow Bob? It could happen...